Gaming bus in Gravesham teaches public online safety

Gravesham Borough Council has commissioned a gaming bus to teach people of all ages about these dangers.

Transcript

00:00 Whether you love arcade classics or modern age tech, this gaming bus in Gravesham aims

00:06 to cover both.

00:07 But there's a greater purpose here than seeing who can get the high score, as Gravesham Borough

00:12 Council have set out to inform visitors how to tackle hate and extremism that can be prevalent

00:18 in the online gaming space.

00:20 This came from a multi-purpose group of agencies and also children and young people as a way

00:25 to bring together the ideas that have permeated through online hatred and extremism and a

00:31 way to tackle this using the medium of gaming to bring it all together and to try and tackle

00:36 this in a very innovative way.

00:37 It's a good piece of partnership work in here in person, in a physical form.

00:43 A member of Fraggers who were commissioned for the event were aware of the issues gamers

00:49 face.

00:50 There's loads of issues online on extremism and hate online.

00:54 And it's ridiculous the amount that there is now.

00:56 So having community events like this just helps children with their knowledge and helps

01:01 parents with their knowledge as well on how to help deal with it and how they can put

01:04 preventions in place.

01:05 Whether it's safeguarding and wifi blockage or just general help and assistance for their

01:10 children going through some online abuse.

01:13 I spoke to a university lecturer who raised awareness on treating video games as a powerful

01:19 social medium.

01:21 It's really important to stimulate critical thinking about media, about media which are

01:27 such a big part of our lives.

01:30 And video games is certainly a medium that's worthy of that critical attention.

01:35 And I think it's not just about playing games and that's fun and that's great, but also

01:42 asking or critically reflecting about video games and creating spaces in which we can

01:49 do that.

01:50 So video games are definitely a medium which deserve that kind of attention.

01:57 This gaming bus hopes to teach the public how to stay safe and have fun in the virtual

02:02 world, making everyone winners.

02:04 As well as teaching people to stay safe online, it's also giving people like me the chance

02:11 to brush up on their Mario Kart skills.

02:14 Henry Luck for KMTV in Gravesham.